Philippine Blog Awards and blogging covered by mainstream media
Coy Caballes has posted a partial video of an interview about blogging and the Philippine Blog Awards in Mornings @ ANC. In the video, TJ Manotoc interviews Juned Sonido, Ferdz Decena, and Karlo Licudine. Watch out for part two!
Also check the links in the post for more coverage by other stations including GMA, QTV, and TV5. Who says the “old” and “new” media can’t get along?
Submit your blog to blogs.com now!
blogs.com is the newest service that lets you discover the best of the blogosphere. It’s a creation of the same people who brought you blogging software rivals to WordPress, but everyone is encouraged to submit their favorite blogs for approval.
You can quickly and easily find blogs by category and topic or read daily blog roundups of some of the best blog content around the Web. Top 10 Lists from celebrity bloggers and influencers also help you discover new blogs, and everyone is invited to create their own Top 10 lists to share with the community. Blogs.com also produces a free weekly email newsletter so you can get the best in blogs delivered to your inbox.
Gossip blog Chikatime taken down
Gossip blog Chikatime mysteriously goes offline, months after it broke the controversial story about Brian Gorrell, DJ Montano, and the Gucci Gang.
A few days ago it has limited its access to a selected number of readers only, but as of writing the site has exactly one blog post entitled “farewell”:
para wala nang gulo, we apologize to everyone we wrote about. madami din kaming na-offend.
More WordPress blogs being hacked
Last time, it was a WordPress vulnerability that was resolved by upgrading to the latest version. This time, it’s a non-WordPress issue, specifically a redirect technique, that’s affecting a lot of WordPress-powered blogs.
The recent security issues concern hackers who work with Google and other search engine results and redirects traffic from your blog or website. The searchers clicks on the link and is redirected to the hacker’s site with the same search string used to search in the search engine. Most bloggers notice a problem when their site traffic drops inexplicably and/or their ad income drops.
Read Lorelle’s post for more information on detecting and eliminating this security issue.
Join the 9rules Network
Update: You might want to know that the latest version of 9rules is built with WordPress and bbPress. That’s pretty amazing considering all the features this community offers.
Does your website have have quality content? Get recognized by one of the most popular web communities, 9rules.
What is 9rules?
Here’s a little background info first. 9rules started in 2003 with, well, nine rules:
- Love what you do.
- Never stop learning.
- Form works with function.
- Simple is beautiful.
- Work hard, play hard.
- You get what you pay for.
- When you talk, we listen.
- Must constantly improve.
- Respect your inspiration.
It soon evolved into a community that you can’t quite categorize: a mix of a forum, a blog aggregator, a Digg clone (even if 9rules came before Digg!), and a social network. After several redesigns and revisions, the 9rules of today is a website that features content from its member blogs.
How do you join 9rules?
So how do you become a member? Over the years 9rules has announced submission rounds. As 9rules relaunched this April 30th this year, aspiring bloggers can submit their URLs on the following dates:
- May 7, 2008
- August 6, 2008
- November 5, 2008
Rounds open at midnight eastern standard time of said dates and run for 24 hours each. The first submission round is just 2 days away! Keep your eyes on the 9rules blog for more detailed instructions on submitting your blog.
If you don’t make it to 9rules, or don’t think exclusivity is your thing, try Chawlk, where you can discuss and post links freely.
When Blogs Become Unacknowledged Mainstream Media Sources
Blogs being scraped and plagiarized by other blogs is one thing, but what do you do about the beast that is mainstream media? It’s very disappointing for this type of thing to happen, since television and newspaper companies often consider themselves far more legitimate and reputable than anything that comes from the Internet.
Yet we are experiencing an emerging culture of taking things without asking permission, much less giving proper attribution. It could be a bunch of different reasons, mostly revolving around ignorance, but what does that say about supposedly educated professionals in the fields of journalism and mass media? Where are these people’s ethics?
This is a lesson for both providers of content and those who are in need of it: Just because you can find it on Google doesn’t mean you can use it for yourself. If the TV stations strongly oppose putting their shows on YouTube, then they should treat online content with the same respect they expect. Konting respeto lang.
Similarly, if you put anything on the Internet, it is bound to be plagiarized. Certain measures can be taken to avoid this, but the most desperate of people will still find a way to steal your content: remove watermarks, paraphrase sentences, et cetera.
I’m sure bloggers would be honored for their writings, photographs, and other creations to be featured in “the real world”. There’s a reason why Creative Commons emerged as a more generous alternative to copyright. And for those who don’t already know, we have a local group that has ported the Creative Commons licenses into the Philippine legal context, so creators are more protected than ever. The problem is, people don’t read. We don’t read street signs, we don’t follow instructions. We just go online and take whatever it is we need without worrying about the consequences. CC licenses are already easy to read, but we don’t take time out to understand what “non-commercial use” even means! Because chances are, we won’t get caught anyway.
Then again, the Philippine blogging community is growing more assertive and formidable each year. And this dilemma is one of the best ways we can prove that. Act now, fellow Pinoy bloggers!
INQUIRER.net Blogs
This week, we’re featuring not just one but twenty-three blogs! All of them are under the Philippine Daily Inquirer website, INQUIRER.net.
Inquirer is arguably the most popular, most up-to-date, and most high-tech Philippine publication online. And they’ve taken it a step further through its roster of blogs that cover topics like video games, Apple, music, sports, science, TV, real estate, travel, girls, and even—you guessed it—blogging. It looks like they’ve drawn inspiration from the New York Times and its WordPress-powered blogs.
Blogging about the Lozada Testimony and ZTE Broadband Scandal
“Ang salitang Pilipino ay tumutukoy sa isang bansa, ang bansang Pilipino. And sometimes, it’s worth taking a risk for this country.” - Jun Lozada
Controversies in Philippine current events almost always spill over to the Philippine Blogosphere because it’s a great way to hear from the many voices that would otherwise be drowned out by hype. This very moment, all eyes are on the brave witness in the ZTE broadband scandal, Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada. How have Pinoy bloggers covered the issue so far?
AWBHoldings.com has a short list of blogged reactions, including a link to Manuel L. Quezon III’s Twitter live tweets of the hearing.
Speaking of MLQ3, he has quite a number of lengthy blog posts himself, the latest being “The Witness”. Lots of links out too, including a plea from Lozada’s niece. It’s clear that aside from blogs running WordPress, Multiply will always be a goldmine Filipinos updating on their lives.
Then there’s the transcript of Lozada’s Exposé from Pedestrian Observer (also available at GMANews.TV).
Oh, and I found an awesome quote by Jun Lozada from Mary Ann Señir and an awesome caricature of Jun Lozada by Jed Segovia, both of which you can see at the top of this post.
This is just the beginning, so be sure to keep up with Jun Lozada and the ZTE Broadband Scandal (tools like Google Blog Search and Twitter are a big help).
Pinoy Tech Blog
100% Tech. 100% Filipino. 100% Blog. That is what Pinoy.tech.blog is all about. PTB, as the blog is fondly called, is one of the first and foremost successful team blogging endeavors by Filipinos.
At the forefront of PTB are several big names in the local technology and blogging scenes. The team is a set of professionals in the various technology industries in the Philippines, or involving Filipinos in and out of the country.
The PTB has often been cited by mainstream media, including print, radio and television, for its intelligent commentary, useful tips, and quick news reportage.
